Welcome back to Finetuned! Things have been fairly exhausting, deeply stressful, and categorically scary with the US and the world. I want to take a step back from the higher energy and create a more relaxed sonic space for us to all sit in. This week we are chatting about Free Range. I hope you all enjoy this one! ❤
Free Range is the musical project of Sofia Jensen, an indie folk / indie rock songwriter from Chicago. Jensen grew up in the Rogers Park neighborhood and began writing songs in their mid-teens. Over time, they teamed up with drummer/producer Jack Henry and bassist Bailey Minzenberger, building the foundations of Free Range into a full band. The project’s debut album, Practice, came together over several years, with much of the material developed during the pandemic and recorded in intimate, home-grown settings.
The general vibe of Free Range leans toward introspection and tenderness. Their music feels rooted in folk traditions but carries the openness of indie rock and the intimacy of bedroom recordings. The band’s presence is quietly expansive. It is fearfully thoughtful, emotionally raw, and often tinged with a wistful or yearning quality. These friends truly balance earnest vulnerability with understated confidence, creating songs that feel both deeply personal and broadly relatable.
Free Range’s sonic identity is defined by restraint and atmosphere. What I mean more distinctly by this is there is this feeling of openness, but also a similar feeling that this sound is pulled back and intentionally intimate. Acoustic guitar and voice sit at the core of their sound, supported by light percussion, warm bass, and subtle electric or slide guitar textures. As aforementioned, the arrangements often leave space, giving silence and breath as much weight as instrumentation. Subtle, organic music.
On Practice, the textures of the mix are layered delicately to create a sense of depth within simplicity. Understated instrumentation anchored by acoustic guitar and a warm vocal delivery. Lyrically, the record explores growth, change, memory, and longing. Jensen writes about personal transformation, relationships in flux, and the tension between wanting stability and accepting impermanence. I think that learning to digest what impermanence is for an individual is a challenging universe to float in, I myself have struggled with this. Many of the songs carry a confessional tone, like moments of private reflection set to music, almost like its a thought of mine. Themes of nature, time, and distance recur, giving the album a grounded yet contemplative feel.
Across Practice, contrasts emerge between fragility and resilience, solitude and connection. The record allows for ambiguity. This lets unresolved feelings linger, leaving space for reflection. This openness is part of its strength: it feels like a companion in moments of transition, offering both solace and recognition without neat conclusions.
Why Listen? It’s a record for anyone who values honesty, stillness, and emotional depth in music, songs that reward close attention but also work as a gentle, comforting backdrop. Jensen’s voice and writing strike a delicate balance between vulnerability and confidence, making Practice both personally resonant and universally relatable.
free range - practice
Listen Wherever You Are ⤵
Finetuned Rec 👇
A beautiful picture, a welcoming sound, a devoted lyrical record. This is one that I think is best for the chill days. Maybe its for the evening, pop a bottle of wine and cook some yummy food.
Enjoy the jams, Finetuners!
artist - Free Range
album - Practice
album rating - 9.2/10
fave track - Forgotten
hon. men. #1 - Want To Know
hon. men. #2 - Running Out
Thanks for reading here, Finetuners! I do hope you all have enjoyed this week’s Finetuned. I’d appreciate any insights, admiration, or otherwise. You can email me here: [email protected].
Please do share Finetuned with your friends & fam & whoever else! I believe great music should be shared, cherished, and understood from all sorts of perspectives.
See you all in the next one! 🙌
(Sources: Wikipedia, Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, The Big Takeover, PizzaFM, Our Culture Mag)